Description

This new student resource centre is composed of two buildings and a tower. The main building, recognisable by its large, sloping entrance canopy, contains libraries for the senior and junior schools together with rooms for creative arts performance, multi-media learning, study rooms, staff rooms and kitchen facilities. Adjacent is the much smaller music block comprising sound proof rehearsal rooms. The third element is a 14 metre high tower, a gleaming feature which is lit up at night, a transparent beacon which helps to compose the whole into a unified work. It is like a church in this respect, its startling presence on this disparate campus transforming the old-fashioned idea of library into a modernist edifice full of light and energy. The building was originally conceived conventionally as a series of separate functional spaces, a suite of rooms each with its own defined use; however, as discussions with the client developed, it became clear that creating flexible multi-use spaces would be to the students’ advantage. The entrance foyer was expanded to become a space for hanging out. It in turn flows naturally into the senior library, predominantly open-plan yet serviced with a range of more enclosed study and classroom areas. It is, however, the range and diversity of windows and roof lights with sloping highly differentiated ceiling planes which create the sense of drama within the new building.

Flexible technology is not just about computer aided learning, an individual working on his or her own, contained by four walls and the screen anyplace. Rather, as students have access to learning anywhere, so that in theory the classroom becomes less important, it becomes critical to ensure that social interaction between students is maintained and encouraged. Thus the new building will act as a classroom for 600 people at any one time. This concept of the building as a flexible mega-classroom will allow for learning in a less confined way than the conventional classroom permits. The space enables students to be quiet and isolated if they need to be; they can find hidden low corners, a window booth which orientates out rather than in. Alternatively, if they feel social as they work on a task, there are big open areas full of light which encourage a sense of interaction. It empowers the students to feel grown up, as it treats them with respect through the freedom of the plan and the strength of the architectural experiences it provides.

The new building with its tower and beautifully lit interiors conveys a sense of environmental sophistication to a previously mundane campus of portable classrooms and unremarkable institutional buildings. Strategically placed at the centre of the school’s campus, it provides a heart and focus to both the school and the wider community (the centre is open for public use in evenings and at weekends). Each space has been designed on its own terms for the maximum emotional potential, exploiting views and orientation. The building is illuminated at nighttime, with each part of the composition highlighted with colour to provide legibility and order. The use of the strong vertical element is symbolic, a statement of the importance and pleasure of learning.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.